Adzan and False Rhythm

An European friend of mine, The G. Wagner, who have been long stay living with Indonesian neighborhood in the north of Bandung, frustrating with was very high noisy volume loud speakers, bad sound system and also almost more than 5 times a day. This coming from the Mosque near by his house.

Moslem have obligation to perform at least five times a day to pray, which are at around 4.30 am, 1200am, 03.30am 17.50 pm and 1900pm. So almost every mosque here utters called Adzan (Pray Call) as high as possible with the assumption can be heard by every moslem elsewhere. Of course there is not every mosque can prepare someone who has a good voice and sing beautiful adzan song , then anyone can do that to sing the adzan.

“Look at that Ali, if only five times a day and each only five minutes that was fine. But near my house people call for pray at 02.30 am with high volume. And what another worst were if early in the morning and in the late afternoon, the young kids using high mosque microphone and sing very bad song, no good tune, no melody and very bad voices as well, and that was terrible thing”, Wagner complaining. “For me that was not expressing praise to the God but that was humiliating God”, he added.

Wagner measured on how the people do in the church, but here in Indonesia since it is praising to the God the ability to sing does not important, but people accepted it.

Although vice President Budiono in his address to Board of Indonesia Mosque Meeting, implied that adzan was so nice to hear in softly voice and from far away, he wanted to regulate.

But, this is in Jakarta, a Dutch guy, who lived in an apartment , complained to imam about the call of prayer, “Can you keep the noise down!” the imam said you need to respect local customs, and if the Dutch man didn’t like it, He should move. The imam could have got angry and told the locals and had the Dutch man raced out of town. Instead, He didn’t get angry and told the man He should find a quiet apartment.